Friday, September 29, 2006

I periodically have to drive myself crazy trying to find look through all my craft-type books for something I remember seeing but unsure which book it was in. Not an easy task as this bookshelf is nothing but craft-type books (plus remote control car hehe).(The black board you see in the bottom left of the picture is my loom knitting display board that will be heading to Michaels tomorrow.)

While pursuing Better Homes and Gardens Stitchery and Crafts (1966), I found a reference to loom knitting!

The instructions cover double-sided knitting and give loom design credit to Mildred Koch. The loom has a stand (of sorts) which I like - nice idea!

If you're in the Lancaster/Palmdale, CA area tomorrow (Saturday, September 30th), stop by Michaels to say "HI!"...class preview from 1 to 4 pm. Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Did you know that yarn has to age before it can be used? Well, of course not - but don't tell my husband! He sometimes asks whether I'm a knitter or a yarn collector. He has a point...sorta...I do have yarn in my stash that I purchased 10 years ago.

Some of the collection includes this Christmas Glitter yarn. A few years ago, during an after Christmas sale at Michaels, I picked this yarn up in red, white, and varigated Christmas colors. The yarn has a strand of silver metallic "yarn" that runs through it and when it catches the light, it glitters.

I started the hat during a class demo at Michaels last Sunday. The yarn caught the eye of one of the customers and she asked where to find it. I had to tell her that we no longer sell it....but I had a suggestion of how to replicate the glitz and glitter of the yarn. This knitter loved the suggestion, so I thought you might like to know too.

Friday, September 22, 2006

People that know me well, know that my primary "job" is raising my daughter (she's an only child). Angela has physical and cognitive disabilities (she was born 16 weeks early and had a cranial hemorrhage at birth). In a nutshell, she's a bright, sensitive girl that needs help.

My "job," in addition to loving and nurturing her, has been to teach (homeschool) academics, do vision therapy, physical and occupational therapy, and life skills....more, obviously, but that gives you the idea. She has been with me everyday, all day, for years (except when I teach at Michaels).

Angela is now 18 years old (time flew!) And this past Tuesday, she started a pre-vocational/life skills training program. She's gone Monday through Friday for 5 hours. We're thrilled to see this fragile little flower blossoming into a young lady. Yet we're scared to death...she's out in the "cold, cruel world" now.

I know that this is what parenting is all about - helping our children to become independent adults. But, geesh! Letting them go takes some getting use to. I'm happy for her, scared for her, and wondering about her future (yep, that's typical parenting).

Monday, September 18, 2006

We're home from our family outing to Fallen Leaf Lake. Camping is a family hobby for us and this trip is always relaxing and fun! We hiked, played games, and sat around the campfire in the evenings. No photos as the camera was forgotten - too bad 'cause it's a beautiful area!

Not a lot of knitting for me. I haven't developed the motor skills for hiking and knitting at the same time. And I'm sure yarn would get dirty trying to knit around a campfire!

However, I did run across a yarn shop called Wool Tree in Lake Tahoe area. I scored a couple of addi turbo needles for sock knitting and picked up some sock yarn. AND I discovered bamboo yarn - so soft!! OK, so it's actually been popular for a few months now. I guess I'm the last one to "hear" about it.

Anyway, I didn't buy it as I've promised that I will not buy unless I have a project for the yarn (huge sigh). But I did make a mental note to look at prices online...just in case (hehe). Now I'm finding there are more then one manufacturer of bamboo yarn. I found reviews for this one but I like the price better on this one.

Have you tried either of these? I'm hoping to come up with a project soon!!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

I'm going to be gone for a few days but before leaving I wanted to post a little about color. I love mixing yarn to get new colors...similar to the way a painter mixes paint. In June, I posted a little about mixing color with fun fur....two distinct colors mixed will become a whole new color.

This time, I'm playing around with mixing a varigated yarn with a yarn of 1 of the colors from the varigated. I wanted to go for fall colors for one of my new patterns.

I took this...

...mixed it with this....

...and when loom knitted, it turns out like this....

I really like how the burgandy took on the hue of light brown from the varigated yarn and became a very dark orange/red. Fall colors...YES! (The true colors are being changed slightly by the flash of the camera....but trust me....it's more orange then pink!)

And here is a little slide show of the hat that these mixed yarns became....(psssst, Isela, thanks for the info about slide show...it IS easy!)

I'm still typing this pattern as well as others....but was slowed down by the "death" of my rewriteable CD!! Did you know they wear out?? Well, why didn't you tell me!??!

I wanted to try it in a different yarn so that it could be felted. And I knew it would shrink during felting process so I enlarged the rose. HA! Silly me! I forgot to consider the differences in the plies of the yarn so this rose is larger then I wanted for the bag. I also played around with different leaf patterns. This particular one works nicely but it's not really a rose leaf (picky, picky!). So I'm still working on felted version of the rose to get it just right for this bag (sounds like Goldie Locks). BTW, the color of the rose is actually a pale pink.

Earlier the year, I did this boa/scarf with a new stitch I had worked on.

I found a skein of the same yarn in my stash and did a matching hat.

The patterns for these will include the instructions for doing this stitch. I've actually gotten the patterns written (gasp!) but I still need to proof read. Hopefully I'll have them ready next week - unless inspiration gets in the way of paperwork....again.

I haven't named the patterns yet. The boa looks feathery - so that's one possibility. If you have an idea, let me know!